The epidemic spread through Tyneside and
then on to the rest of Britain. 32,000
people died in Britain, the result of a
global pandemic that killed millions.
Further outbreaks occurred in 1848, 1853 and
1866, each time causing thousands of people
to suffer a painful and unpleasant death. At
first, doctors had little idea about what
caused cholera. It was thought that the
disease was carried in the air, but all
kinds of precautions were urged. The link
between cholera and contaminated water was
not proved until 1854 when Dr John Snow (who
had first experienced the disease whilst
working in the North East) discovered
cholera in a well that had been contaminated
by a cess pit.
Report from the General Board of
Health. October 31st 1853.
Soham.
Ten deaths from cholera and two from
diarrhoea are reported as having occurred in
Soham since the 21st October, six from
cholera and one from diarrhoea happened
within the last 30 hours prior to the
despatch of the latest accounts. Upwards of
40 cases ( some very severe in their
character ) occurred on the 30th alone. From
120 to 130 cases of choleraic diarrhoea are
stated to have taken place in various parts
of the district. Dr. Lewis has been directed
by the General Board of Health to visit the
locality immediately, to advice with Local
authorities as to the adoption of
precautionary measures.
Report from the General Board of
Health November 7th 1853.
Ely.
Oct. 29th to Nov. 4th- Cholera deaths 2.
The officer of health of Ely reports that
five cases of cholera have occurred in that
city, two of which have proved fatal.
Neither of these appears to have had
communication with Soham, nor with each
other, and they occurred in different parts
of Ely. As usual, both the deceased lived in
most unhealthy localities. The inquest
furnishes an account of the locality in
which the first victim resided, and of the
second it is only necessary to add the name,
Little London. In Mr. Lees report, in 1849,
on the sanitary condition of Ely, it is
stated that the mortality in this particular
locality was then 45 in the 1000.
Previously to the occurrence of these fatal
cases the officer of health had made a
report to the local board of health on the
wretched condition of this locality, and the
local board of health had formed themselves
into a committee and made a house-to-house
visitation of the usual seats of epidemic
disease. The result of their inquiries has
been the discovery of nuisances as plentiful
as in 1848-49. No unusual amount of
diarrhoea appears to be prevailing at
present. Board meetings have been held daily
during the last week. Dr. Waller Lewis,
being at Soham, was requested to visit Ely
to assist in carrying into effect forthwith
such precautionary measures as were
practicable.
Soham.
The condition of this town is an example of
that of many others, and of the difficulty,
when an extraordinary epidemic occurs, of
carrying into effect any effectual
preventive measures. It also illustrates
the destruction of life and the loss in
money occasioned by the almost constant
presence of typhus and other forms of
zymotic disease. Up to the 6th November, 29
fatal cases of cholera had occurred.
A partial and deceptive lull in the progress
of the epidemic appears to have taken place
in the middle of last week, but the disease
began to re-assume its virulent form during
the night of the 4th. An old man who at
4o'clock p.m. held the horse of one of the
medical officers while he entered the house
to visit a patient, and who then said that
he was perfectly well, although it
afterwards appeared that at that very time
he was labouring under premonitory symptoms,
was taken ill in the night, and,
notwithstanding all medical aid died in the
morning. " When shortly afterwards I
inspected the house," says Dr. Waller Lewis,
" I found his three grandchildren all
dangerously ill, two of them with only
slight chances of recovery. The house was
one of those which I had previously
described as wretched and dirty in the
extreme, with large ditches of filthy water
strongly impregnated with night soil in
front and behind it, and a privy in an
indescribable condition in the back yard.
This is in Bull Lane, where, and in the
immediate neighbourhood, are numerous other
houses in a similar condition. Many of
these houses have lost one or more of their
late inhabitants, and still contain from one
to three or four cases of the disease in one
or other of its stages. I am quite at a
loss to know what can be done for these
unfortunates. From the reports of the
medical attendants, medicine seems to exert
little controlling influence over the
disease. Nothing short of a wholesale
removal of the people from their present
infected abodes can prevent many more
falling victims to the pestilence.
Unluckily, from the nature of this place,
this step is impracticable to any extent.
Soham is a town, or rather a long,
straggling village, with but few houses
untenanted. The few that are to be had are
mostly situated on the Commons, which are
intersected everywhere with full ditches,
and dotted frequently with pools of stagnant
water. In the winter and wet weather these
Commons are for weeks and months together
ankle-deep in water, and in many places
quite impassable. In fact, they labour
under the same disadvantages and defects of
non-drainage and saturated soils as the most
infected localities themselves.
" Some conception may be formed of the
unhealthy condition and consequent cost to
the union of some of these Commons, from the
fact that I visited a row of four or five
cottages on Ina-fen-common, where there were
then some cases of diarrhoea. I was
informed by one of the magistrates, and the
statement was confirmed by one of the
inhabitants, that in the Autumn there had
been 18 or 19 cases of fever in those few
houses. The Soham guardian assured me that
they had cost the union between 50 shillings
and 60 shillings a week, for many weeks
together, in wine alone. Can the do-nothing
system be allowed to continue much longer
?. In one house in Bull Lane, the mother
lay dying with cholera in one room, and five
children vomiting and purged in one bed in
an adjoining room, which is so constructed
that it is only by bending the body to
nearly a right angle that I could approach
the bed to examine the sufferers. The
mother, I regret to say, has died this
morning. A local sanitary committee,
established here at my suggestion, and with
plenary powers and authority from the
Newmarket Board of Guardians, are now most
energetically and praiseworthily exerting
themselves to remove the diseased to another
set of cottages. But it is doubtful whether
much benefit will be derived from this from
the circumstances previously stated.
More good will certainly accrue from another
step also in process of execution-namely,
removing those that are still unaffected to
a house in a dry and healthy locality.
Unluckily this will accommodate but three
families, a mere fraction of those that
ought to be removed. From local
circumstances, the town of Soham is in a
state of most deplorable helplessness. It is
six miles from the nearest town, Ely, and
seven from Newmarket, where the guardians
sit. There is no communication with either
of those towns but by private conveyance.
No coach, omnibus, or fly is kept in the
place. If such conveyance is required a
messenger must be despatched to one of these
towns to request one to be sent. It is with
the greatest difficulty the sanitary
committee have borrowed a horse and cart to
convey the invalids and some necessary
articles of furniture to the hired
cottages. The town will owe an eternal debt
of gratitude to those gentlemen who have
combined to form a Local Board of Health.
The vicar, the Rev. Henry Tasker, who had
quitted the place to go to Brighton for his
health, returned immediately he received
intelligence of the virulent nature of the
outbreak. His two curates, who have both
suffered from slight attacks of the
epidemic, are, together with the magistrates
and the Local authorities and some other
gentlemen, indefatigable in their exertions.
" One of the medical men is unfortunately an
invalid and unable to leave his house; and
this throws additional labour on the other
two, whose exertions are beyond praise. I
feel convinced that they would soon have
been obliged to give in, but the two
house-to-house visitors from London have
just arrived, and are now in full work. I
hope, therefore, to be able shortly, under
Divine favour, to report a more favourable
state of things.
"In the meantime I have to report that four
deaths have taken place here today, and
several children are in a state that affords
but little room for hope.
" To show the virulent nature of the poison,
and how thoroughly impregnated therewith an
infected house becomes, I adduce the
following cases of several members of the
same family suffering at the present time:-
In the family of H. 3 members are labouring
under the disease, the family of T. 3
members, the family of H. 2 members, the
family of P. 7 members, the family of A. 5
members, the family of H. 5 members, the
family of B. 4 members, the family of G. 3
members, the family of L. 3 members, and the
family of H. 6 members ( NOTE. No surnames
are given just the initials ),.
There are at present under treatment:
Diarrhoea, 82; approaching Cholera, 2;
Cholera, 4.
In Waterside alone there are 24. In Bull
Lane, 20.
Report from the General Board of
Health November 8th 1853.
Soham.
The foggy, damp atmosphere and cloudy
weather which have prevailed in this
district during the last two days appear to
have favoured the spread of the epidemic.
At a meeting of the sanitary committee, held
yesterday, a resolution was unanimously
passed to erect two or three large booths or
other buildings of wood, to receive the sick
and their families from the infected
localities, as no measure short of this
appeared likely to prevent many of the
poorer classes who inhabit the damp and
polluted districts from falling victims to
the pestilence. But it is stated that both
workmen and materials are so difficult to
procure in this place that much time must
necessarily elapse before any place fit to
receive cholera patients can be erected. "
In the meantime," says Dr. Walter Lewis, "
there is a constant addition of fresh cases,
among which children, the most delicate
tests of impure air form a large proportion.
All the children attacked suffer from
incessant vomiting; this symptom being
rarely absent. No nurses having been
procured, or being likely to be obtained
from the town or from Newmarket, two have
been sent from Addenbrokes Hospital, at
Cambridge."
Thirty fresh cases of premonitory symptoms
have been developed since last night, and
another bad case of cholera.
Report from the General Board of
Health November 9th 1853.
Soham.
( Deaths from the epidemic )
To November 7th, 32 deaths
November 8th, 3 deaths
----------------------
Isleham.
There has been an outbreak of the epidemic
in this large village, Dr. Waller Lewis,
who on hearing of the occurrence at once
proceeded there, states that " it is in the
most deplorable condition. Great numbers of
the people live in large hollows in the
ground, from which many years ago building
stone was extracted. In one pit there are
nearly 500 people in a state of great
deprivation and dirty in the extreme. In
the first house I entered one corpse had
just been placed in a coffin, another poor
child was nearly ready for his last narrow
resting place, and a third had a fair chance
of recovery. Six deaths had already
occurred, and the medical officer had
between 30 and 40 severe cases on his
hands. The number of inhabitants is between
2,000 and 3,000. There is but little
medicine and not one druggists shop in the
village, which is 5 or 6 miles from the
nearest town.
" Few private houses are provided with
privies, and there are but four public
necessaries, which have not been cleared out
for nearly two years."
Cholera at Soham.
To the Editor of the Times
From Thomas Hustwick of Soham,
9th November 1853.
Sir,- A sense of duty to my fellow townsmen
imposes upon me the obligation of referring
to certain reports emanating from the
General Board of Health and published in The
Times, and of correcting two or three
statements therein, which are calculated to
do considerable injury to the trade and
interests of the town. And first, I have to
complain of the general sweeping statement
which appeared in The Times of Friday, the
4th November, and furnished to the General
Board of Health by Dr. Waller Lewis, viz.:
" That the crying evil - the prime cause of
the virulent form of the epidemic now raging
- is the quantity of stagnant water met with
at every step. The whole town is an
assemblage of open ditches, the water in
many of which is perfectly saturated at the
present time with decomposing animal and
vegetable matter."
It may be desirable I should state, for the
information of those who are unacquainted
with Soham, that it is an extensive parish,
comprising between 14,000 and 15,000 acres
of land, and that the principal street of
the town is upwards of a mile in length -
forming the high road from Ely to Newmarket.
However applicable Dr. Waller Lewis's
statement may be to certain localities in
the parish, the Main Street is not deserving
any such condemnation; for I defy Dr. Waller
Lewis to find one open ditch from the
commencement of Hall Street to the end of
Sand Street - the whole length of the
thoroughfare abovementioned.
I took an opportunity of expressing my
surprise at the statement, at a meeting of
our sanitary committee on Saturday last,
when Dr. Waller Lewis replied, " If any
gentlemen complained of his reports, he had
better write to The Times to correct them,"
I regret to find additional misstatements,
from the same source, in your journal of
Tuesday the 8th November, and, as they cast
most undeserved reflection upon our town and
its inhabitants, I feel it incumbent upon
me, as a member of the sanitary committee,
to notice them, otherwise I should have been
content to pass over the first report, above
alluded to, without further observation.
Dr. Waller Lewis reports, " The town of
Soham is in a state of deplorable
helplessness," and adduces, in support of
such an uncalled-for and unjustifiable
expression, that no coach, omnibus, or fly
is kept in the place, forgetting that in a
country town almost every person, whose
business or engagements call him from home,
keeps some conveyance of his own; and
further, what, if un contradicted, would
reflect indelible disgrace, and cast a
lasting stigma upon the better feelings of
the inhabitants. " that it was with the
greatest difficulty the sanitary committee
borrowed a horse and cart to carry the
invalids and some necessary articles of
furniture to the hired cottages."
Surely Dr. Waller Lewis's memory must be of
the most treacherous kind, for it cannot be
forgotten that, when the sanitary committee
met on Sunday morning ( many of whom devoted
the whole of that day to attend to the wants
and necessities of the afflicted and
destitute ). and the removal of some of the
families from the infected districts was
determined upon, one of the committee ( Mr.
King ) at once placed at their disposal a
covered cart: but, a more convenient one
having been proposed, the officer of the
committee was immediately despatched for it,
and in the course of half an hour the cart
was at the place appointed ; and several of
the committee personally superintended the
removal of the sick, whose lives, it was
hoped, might thus be spared. So much for
the " greatest difficulty " in borrowing a
horse and cart.
I regret Dr. Waller Lewis should consider it
necessary to introduce topics of this nature
into his reports, which tend very much to
destroy the influence of his opinions, and
are altogether beside the sphere of his
official duties. Much, very much, I know
full well, requires to be done in certain
localities, as to the removal of nuisances (
and to this object the sanitary committee,
who sit twice every day, are directing their
most patient and unwearied attention ); and
much also as to a better system of drainage
- to which those gentlemen are prepared to
give their undivided attention, immediately
the more weighty duties now devolving upon
them will allow; but it is unfair and unjust
to all that so little care and consideration
is shown in preparing the reports alluded
to, which are calculated to create
unnecessary alarm and unfavourable
impressions in the minds of friends and
others at a distance.
I cannot conclude this letter without
remarking that it is a matter of observation
by all who have known Soham during a period
of 10 or 15 years, that no other town, of
its size and population, has improved to
such an extent during a like period; and to
its general healthiness the longevity of its
inhabitants and the gravestones in our
churchyard bear ample testimony.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Soham, Nov. 9. Thomas Hustwick.
Report from the General Board of
Health November 14th 1853.
Ely.
The local board of health are stated to be
at work most efficiently in clearing away
all such nuisances as, in the present state
of the drainage, can be removed. From the
low situation of parts of the town, many
thing must remain in their present condition
till the house sewerage is connected with
the main drains. These are now being
proceeded with as rapidly as possible.
There have been several severe cases of
cholera and diarrhoea in one district,
whence a sub-committee are now at work
removing the inhabitants to a more healthy
situation. No deaths have occurred for the
last few days.
Soham
November 12th and 13th, Cholera deaths 3.
The active exertions of the sanitary
committee, together with the house-to-house
visitation and the more favourable weather,
appear to have entirely checked the spread
of the disease, at any rate for the
present. There have been no deaths since
the 9th. " The committee." says Dr. Waller
Lewis, " will now be able to consider
carefully the important question of draining
the Commons and low-lying districts. If this
is scientifically done, there is no reason
why Soham should not be as healthy a town as
any that is to be found in any of the
eastern counties. I believe there will be
then no repetition of the fact that the
mortality during the present visitation has
been almost four times as great as it was
during the previous one, there having been
10 deaths then and 38 now." An error which
found its way into one of the reports from
this place should be corrected; it was
stated, " the whole town is an assemblage of
open ditches." whereas it should have been,
" the infected locality is a series of open
ditches."
Report from the General Board of
Health November 18th 1853.
Soham.
Mr. Lee states that, during his inspection
of Soham, he found the course taken at
Newcastle and other places in the North ( of
covering up and burying with fresh earth
nuisances which it would have been dangerous
to remove during the pestilence ) had been
almost universally adopted at Soham. Mr.
Willis, a surgeon in extensive practice,
states the following as the result of the
experience of this proceeding in Soham.
" There is no doubt here now that the use of
earth to cover, bury, and soak up the foul
nuisances is the best step that can be
taken. It takes up and fixes all the
noxious gases immediately."
State of the Public Health
report
3rd February 1854.
In the sub-district of Soham, in
Cambridgeshire, the deaths, which had been
50 in the corresponding quarter of 1852,
rose to 112 last quarter, in consequence of
cholera in October and November, which was
fatal to 61 persons. In the district of Ely,
in the same county, a great deal of fever
prevailed at Stretham, and 2 cases of
cholera occurred at Haddenham, while in the
parish of Sutton diarrhoea attacked the
inmates of almost every house. The deaths
were 61 in the sub-district of Ely, against
39 in the corresponding quarter of 1852, and
17 of those were caused by cholera.
